This invention relates to a method and system for providing telecommunications services, and even more particularly relates to a digital dialed digit unlock method and system for a wireline telecommunications environment.
Dialing telephone digits is a daily activity for most people. As more and more people subscribe to telephone service, longer and longer numbers are dialed to differentiate subscriber lines. For example, in the past, a seven digit number (XXX-XXXX) may have been enough to differentiate subscriber lines within a calling area. However, as more subscriber lines are added within a calling area, more digits have been needed to differentiate subscriber lines. For example, a ten digit number (XXX-XXX-XXXX) is often needed to differentiate subscriber lines even within a local calling area. As more digits are required for dialing (even for local dialing), more misdialing occurs. Oftentimes, a calling party will enter a few numbers of the called party""s number and then realize that they have entered an incorrect digit. In the wireline environment, there is typically no way to correct these erroneous digits. The calling party must hang up, listen for a new dial tone and redial the called party""s number. Sometimes, when trying to hang up, a calling party will instead only flash their telephone line causing further misdialing and further frustration.
With wireless telephones, a clear key may be used to correct a digit if it has been incorrectly entered. However, in a wireline telecommunications environment, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) phones are not equipped with such clear keys. It is time-consuming and annoying when users make a mistake after entering multiple digits of a telephone number and then must redial the entire telephone number. Thus, there is a need for a digital dialed digit unlock method and system.
In one embodiment, the invention is a method and system for providing a dialed digit unlock and edit feature for an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) telephone connected to an advanced intelligent network (AIN) wireline network is disclosed. The ISDN telephone sends at least one digit of a called party number to an ISDN switch. The ISDN telephone or ISDN switch determines whether Q.931 CALL PROCEEDING call control message has been sent from the ISDN switch to a destination central office. If so, then the dialed digit unlock and edit feature is disabled. However, if the Q.931 CALL PROCEEDING call control message has not been sent, then the ISDN switch determines whether a key to enable the dialed digit unlock and edit feature has been entered on the ISDN telephone. If the key has been entered, then the last digit(s) entered for the called party number are erased and the ISDN switch awaits a new digit(s) to be entered into the ISDN telephone.
These and other features, advantages, and aspects of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the appended drawings and claims.